The Youth and Parent Summit is a two-day event held each June and sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education and the Partnership for People with Disabilities. Youth with disabilities from across the Commonwealth meet to network and discuss issues of importance to youth and young adults with disabilities.

When: June 13-15, 2018

Where: James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Who: Virginia youth with disabilities ages 13-21 and parent(s)

Application Due Date: 5:00 pm on March 9th, 2018

Reference Due Date: 5:00 pm on March 12th, 2018

Applications will be reviewed and acceptance letters will be emailed by March 31st.

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), in collaboration with the Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center (PEATC) and the Center for Family Involvement (CFI), is holding a family fair in the Central Virginia region for parents of students with disabilities.

Your registration includes free “all day” admission to the CMoR for a family of up to 6 members. At least one adult must accompany their children at all times.

Why you should attend:

Come hear keynote speaker Garrett Brumfield from “Overcome Yours.” Garrett, who has cerebral palsy, will share a message of hope, change, and acceptance through sharing his story and the stories of others overcoming great obstacles.

Two mini “Parent Camp” sessions will give you the opportunity to talk about how we can all work more closely and collaboratively with schools and communities to improve outcomes for our children with disabilities.

Over 20 vendors (community agencies, service providers, parent resource centers, family organizations, service dogs, and more) will be available to share information and resources for families of children with disabilities.

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The Virginia Department of Education Offices of Special Education Instructional Services and Humanities and Early Childhood are seeking K-6 teachers to participate in a multi-sensory structured language instruction pilot project during the 2015-2016 school year. Approximately 80 teachers will be selected through a competitive application process to participate in the August 3-7, 2015, regionally-based pilot project. The participants will receive professional development in the Orton-Gillingham instructional approach. This instructional approach is a direct, systematic approach to teaching language structure for reading remediation. It is designed to address the needs of struggling readers who have difficulty with reading, spelling, and writing including those with a specific learning disability such as dyslexia.

The Virginia Department of Education Office of Special Education Instructional Services in consultation with the Office of Mathematics and Governor’s Schools is sponsoring two Math Co-teaching Academies. The academies are designed for school teams of mathematics and special education teachers working together to enhance all student outcomes, especially students with disabilities. The focus will be utilizing co-teaching approaches to deliver specially designed instruction that includes the evidence-based practices of vocabulary instruction and the Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) sequence. Participants will also learn how to integrate formative assessment in their classrooms to develop data-driven tiered systems of support and design instruction to meet individual student needs. The Academies will be held: [Read more…]

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I am pleased to announce that the Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Science and Health Education and Office of Special Education Instructional Services, in partnership with James Madison University, will again sponsor a collaborative science-inclusion special education institute at the University’s summer 2015 Content Teaching Academy (CTA). This exciting and successful program, Augmenting Science and Special Educator Teams (ASSET), is designed for science and special educator school teams working together to enhance all student outcomes focusing on improved content understanding, pedagogical strategies, collaboration strategies, and networking. The CTA (and the ASSET program) will run from June 22 – 26, 2015. [Read more…]